How to do Retort Canning - Making REAL MRE's
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- Here is the video I was saying you wanted to stick around for. how to do Retort Canning and how to seal the bags without a commercial grade vacuum chamber.
Food Preservation, Emergency Preparedness and off grid living/homesteading Facebook group:
/ 1282481512409861
Retort Canning bags
1 Pint - amzn.to/3GS12Jc
1/2 Pint - www.amazon.com...
Magic Seal MS175
amzn.to/48gPKtQ
To have a 100% success rate with bags, they must be fully submerged (steam is a no-no, so have something heavy to keep them submerged), and pressure must not be released: canner must cool down naturally.
This is really cool I've wanted to try dehydrating ground beef and eggs for hiking meals. My vacuum sealer works sometimes but bought a barely used one glad sealer haven't tried it yet
Didn't know what retort was till now thanks for sharing
Yeah, Retort canning in home use is fairly new, its been around a long time. The process was invented for Military MRE's. Hopefully word will spread so this becomes a more common practice of food preservation. Its a bit of a pain to do, but the shelf life is increased quite a bit.
@ariofsouthdakota I found it interesting joining the group also I been dehydrating stuff lately
Did you already sign up to join? I saw 1 person got denied for not answering questions. Want to make sure that wasnt you. Changed the settings so it doesnt auto decline anymore. So if that was you. 1,000 apologies, but I fixed it.
Ari: Next time tell the viewers what pressure you used on the pressure canner. Also knowledge about the shelf life would also be helpful. I own a chamber vacuum sealer and they are over $1000. I purchased mine because I was sick of never being able to seal leftovers that were liquid and vacuum sealing for long periods of time. Many regular vacuum sealers over heat when they have been used for long periods of time like when you have just killed a big game animal or butchered you meat animals. Also where did you get the canning times that info would also be helpful. Keep doing the videos no one starts out perfect in the beginning.
Wow! That was awesome! Looks like I'm going to have to get a new sealer so i can give it a try. Maybe you could 2x seal them before you put them in the canner... just a thought. Thank you, and I love the video!
I did double seal them first. Honestly the 3 thay blew out were the ones that shifted in the canner. I put a link in the description for the sealer. I think it would be useful for you. You can set the vacuum to 1 second for those things you vacuum and let a little air back into. At 1 second of a vacuum or 2 seconds would acieve the same goal. Would save you some time. Im just seeiously in love with that sealer.
Dear madame, thank you for your instructive video. I could feel that I am not really alone as you said. My questions to you are follow: is it possible to can soups, stews, sardines, tuna, etc ... using mylar bags? Retort time for all kind of foods remain the same? I will appreciate to hearing from you.
Great question. Mylar bags have plastic liners in them that melt and release toxins when exposed to heat. So cant even pour boiling water them. Retort bags are a special type of mylar that can withstand the heat in pressure cooking. I've read up about stews being retort canned. Im not so sure about soups. I know pressure canning them laid out properly is the key to getting these to work right without them exploding everywhere. It may be possible, but it's so new in a home canning sense that most of it is trial and error right now.
That is so cool.
Its fun too.
How long have you been doing your own retort packing? Have you tried food that you have stored for multiple months/years?
This is great by the way!
This was actually my first successful batch. I learned everything I was doing wrong and showed everyone how to do it right. These will store for many years not this batch because my bf will have them all eaten within 6 months. He loves tacos.
@@ariofsouthdakota You should date them all and open and test them on video. It would make a cool addition to the channel
@@angusoldwolf295 they all got dated and will certainly put some aside for later for exactly that. Wanting to do that with freeze dried foods as well.
🤔 Ok, I am thoroughly confused.
If the meat is already cooked and then vacuum sealed, what is the point in pressure cooking it?
Even cooked and vacuum sealed, theres still a chance of botulism. Pressure canning at a cetain lbs of pressure (depends on altitude) for a certain time is guaranteed to kill the botulism spores that could be in your food. Which is not something you ever want in your food. Due to the grease in the meat, i had to cook that out first, do it didnt go in raw.
@@ariofsouthdakota
Ok, thanks for the explanation.
I realize that it's a "new" thing for me, but I honestly don't see the problem.
If you are already eating it (as shown in your video) and it's fully cooked and sealed in a vacuum tight container. Then it just seems like a waste of time and money to pressure cook a sealed container. It is not a jar that needs sealing.
Sorry; I am not trying to sound argumentative. Just trying to understand the need for the process.
It would seem to me that munching on it before it has been vacuum sealed is a good indicator that you trust it to be safe already.
Again; I really appreciate the info. Just trying to wrap my head around the need for it.
@jasonkelley2651 because as it is before its pressure cooked in the bag or even a can, its not shelf stable. It has a 7 day shelf life in the fridge at that point. Pressure cooking it kills any bacteria and botulism that will cause the food to rot. Vacuum sealing only removes oxygen but theres still moisture in food that can cause bacteria and botulism to grow. Its the same rules that apply with pressure canning, the only difference is the container. The point of vacuum sealing the bags is to keep them from expanding too much and blowing out the seams during the pressure canning process. What sets these bags apart from canning in jars, is the seal wont break, giving it a lot longer shelf life than jars who can fail after 18 or so months (can, but dont always) these seals will hold many years longer when jars wont. But unless its serilized in a sealed container at the time of cooking, then its not shelf stable.
@@ariofsouthdakotayou don't have to cook the grease out for preservation purposes, right? Just for preferences/vacuum. I would think that proper canning would stay sealed properly for ages if it was done right
Technically no, you can very easily pack these raw for food preservation purposes. If pressure canned at the proper pressure for the correct length. The purpose for me pre-cooking mine was because this was designed with MRE in mind. If you are heating up an MRE, you dont want to degrease your food usually. But they can be bagged, vaccuum sealed and then pressure canned raw. The important part of this type of canning is the 4oz weight in the 1 pt bags and that its vacuum sealed and placed in the pressure canner or water bath correctly for it to work. Otherwise you can use the same canning recipes you would normally do, but in a bag that will last longer than the jars. I hope you two will forgive my terrible long winded explanations, bf gave me a nasty head cold and Ive been feverish the last 3 days.
I'm very curious. What type of bags do you use? How long and what poundage do you use? I'm in SE Missouri
They are retort bags, i put a link to them in the description. Im not sure how high above sea level you are. That determines how much PSI you need for pressure cooking. It follows the same pressure cooking rules as jars. it just needs to be layed out differently to prevent blowouts like a few we saw. Under 4,000 elevation is 11psi for pressure cooking. Where I am, it's above 4,000 ft and requires 15psi. And each food has different time lemgths, but I give mine a little extra so the food on the inside also gets up to proper temperature.